The team leading the renewed search for the Beaumont children has come under fire, accused of engaging in a farcical smear campaign against suspect Harry Phipps. 

The accusations came from Phipps’ niece, who staunchly defended her uncle and denounced this week’s ongoing investigation.

“The smear campaign with its preposterous stories is a great tragedy not only for Harry Phipps and his family members who cannot speak from their graves, but for the Beaumont family who endured years of pain and suffering in their search for the truth,” she said in a statement to radio station 5AA.

The niece, who chose to remain anonymous, also disputed a revelation made by independent MP Frank Pangallo about a link between the Phipps and Beaumont families through a distant relative. 

She said that she married a third cousin of the Beaumonts’ father in 1983, long after the children’s disappearance in 1966.

Pangallo acknowledged the disconnect between the marriage and the disappearance, saying it was “just an interesting link or association between the two families”.

“Look I understand them coming forward to defend their family they’ve got every right to,” he said.